I recently had to move to a new apartment, and in my new place there's no facilities for a conventional hose and bucket wash. To me, that leaves me with two options for routine cleaning unless you guys have other suggestions.

First, I can take my car wash stuff to a self-serve car wash and clean the car there. The downsides to that are lack of shade and people getting ticked off at me bucket washing and taking so long to do so .

The other option I can think of is using a rinseless wash like Optimum No Rinse. That's certainly more convenient, but having never used that method I don't know how well it'd work for regular washes. I'm particularly concerned with how well it'd work on all that BMW brake dust...

Try finding those car washes that are in parking structures for nice office buildings. I have one near me and they charge me 15$ for an exterior only hand wash. I drop the the car off, go get lunch for an hour and come back and it's all been washed by hand since it's in an office parking garage.

I have used Optimum No Rinse before. It works pretty good for low to medium level cleaning. I usually fill a pump sprayer with the solution at wash dilution and liberally spray the surface before wiping with a microfiber "muppet head" mitt in a wash bucket with ONR solution going panel by panel. The bucket only wash does cause some light marring in my experience. If your car is very dirty, I would not use ONR washing.

I recently had to move to a new apartment, and in my new place there's no facilities for a conventional hose and bucket wash. To me, that leaves me with two options for routine cleaning unless you guys have other suggestions.

First, I can take my car wash stuff to a self-serve car wash and clean the car there. The downsides to that are lack of shade and people getting ticked off at me bucket washing and taking so long to do so .

The other option I can think of is using a rinseless wash like Optimum No Rinse. That's certainly more convenient, but having never used that method I don't know how well it'd work for regular washes. I'm particularly concerned with how well it'd work on all that BMW brake dust...

I have used Optimum No Rinse before. It works pretty good for low to medium level cleaning. I usually fill a pump sprayer with the solution at wash dilution and liberally spray the surface before wiping with a microfiber "muppet head" mitt in a wash bucket with ONR solution going panel by panel. The bucket only wash does cause some light marring in my experience. If your car is very dirty, I would not use ONR washing.

I attended a local meet at the Chemical Guys shop in Los Angeles and attended a DIY detail seminar there as well.

The waterless system would seem to fit your needs perfectly. The POD system is great if you want to spend some dough and/or want to start a business. However, you can purchsase the Eco Smart by the gallon and apply it with a regular hand spray bottle.

I don't have experience with the CG rinseless/waterless but I do with other products such as ONR. All I can say is "do it". Rinseless washes are great. Often I opt for rinseless washs even when I have a water source available.

They're not expensive, the ONR concentrate goes a long way. I'm sure the CG product does too.

As far as fighting BMW brake dust, the performance should be the same as regular car soap. If you have a good sealant on the weeks, it will come off no problem with soap. If you don't, and you've let it build up, use a dedicated wheel cleaner, then apply sealant. You'll probably want to use wheel cleaner when you're at the self serve, since most wheel cleaners like to be rinsed.

Check out the Garry Dean wash method on you tube, I prefer it over a two bucket setup.

I always just went to one of those car wash places where you can spray your own car and took my bucket and stuff. I think there was only like two times that people came to me and said, "Hey no hand washing here." I tried to only do it when no one else was really around, so most of the time people working there didn't care.

Ideally, none of us would ever go waterless. The primary benefit of washing with water is that you can blast dirt off of your paint without compressing dirt against the finish. You lose that with waterless obviously. With that said, waterless can be done properly with the right technique and tools so that swirling or marring is largely avoided.

The two CG products you linked to are great, I've tested them many times over the years and if you use them as advised, you won't cause any damage.

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Originally Posted by Bulb

I'm in the same boat as the OP, and this thread is quite enlightening.
There seems to be a lot of disdain for even touchless wash places, so it looks like onr or ecosmart is the way to go.

Just find one of the self serve places with pressure washers. It's rare that I ever need to scrub anything with a pressure washer. If I do need to I just do it while the timer for the wash is still running. You paid for the time so who cares? I've only had to use a mitt after a track day to remove rubber.

By me I can get a great wash done with about $5. I enjoy the time spent as well.